Fears over Snapchat image leak threat

EXPLICIT images taken with the photo sharing app Snapchat have reportedly been intercepted via a third party app and leaked online.

Users of the app, many of which are teenagers, have allegedly had their personal photos gathered by the third party over a number of years before being posted on to a website.

Snapchat said it was not the source of the leak and it strictly prohibits use of third party apps, which are created by separate developers as “add-ons”.

“We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks,” a spokeswoman said.

“Snapchatters were allegedly victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our terms of use precisely because they compromise our users’ security.

“We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed.”

Snapchat allows users to share videos and images that “disappear” after up to 10 seconds, however recipients can have the chance to “screen-grab” and save the pictures.

The app come under fire earlier this year after hackers published 4.6 million Snapchat user names and phone numbers on a website.

Police and children’s charities have previously warned teenagers over the dangers of using the app to send explicit images, which can be saved or copied.